Steamboat Springs — Folks who give a toot about bringing back the noon whistle are welcome to make their money sing.

Mainstreet Steamboat Springs plans to offer whistles for a $5 suggested donation at stores and at holiday events this weekend. The group hopes to reinstate Steamboat's iconic noon whistle, which was removed from downtown in October. The new sound would be a little softer, however.

"What we found was it's called a triple whistle," architect Cyd Pougiales said. "It's an actual replica of a steamboat off the Mississippi, and it's a marine-grade whistle to last generations."

Pougiales is a member of Mainstreet's design committee, which has spearheaded the push for the whistle. The group has put three whistle options online so the community can vote. The new whistle is expected to be placed at Howelsen Hill and probably will cost $9,000 to $15,000, all parts included, Pougiales said.

Mainstreet has raised about $1,000.

The old whistle stood in the 800 block of Oak Street. It was an emergency siren that had the historical purpose of summoning volunteer firefighters to blazes. It sounded a "test" alarm every day at noon until it was removed by the city of Steamboat Springs in October because of concerns that the wooden pole holding it up was unstable.

Mainstreet Manager Tracy Barnett said interest in the whistle's return has been high.

"I still have people at least on a weekly basis - not an everyday basis at this point - asking me how we're doing on the whistle. 'I miss the whistle,'" she said. "It will just add that hometown country feel."

The new whistle wouldn't be as shrill as the previous noon siren, Pougiales said. Her former office was near the whistle, and she said she wasn't a fan. Mainstreet has been researching a new whistle for about six months, Pougiales said. The whistle helps provide a sense of community, the women said.

Pougiales said it would be great "to bring it back for lunch and for everybody to drop their pencils and go out on the streets to chat."

Volunteers will sell the whistles this weekend at Fourth of July events, Barnett said. They also will be available at stores including F.M. Light & Sons, All That Jazz and Over the Moon.

"We're hoping to have people dressed up in holiday garb and carrying around a box to sell them from, kind of like the peanut hawkers do at games," Barnett said. "But we're also going to have them at the farmers market every week through the summer."

Mainstreet hopes to snag a couple of large sponsors to help with the costs. The group has ordered 500 whistles, and Barnett said she expects to try to sell 1,000. The whistles are labeled with the slogan "save the noon whistle," the city name and the Mainstreet Web site. Barnett has attached a tag with information about the whistle to each.

The goal is for the new whistle to hark back to the tale of how Steamboat Springs got its name, she said.

"We're trying to get it to sound as much like a steamboat as it possibly can and tie into the legend of the fur trappers coming to Steamboat Springs and hearing the sound of the Steamboat Spring shooting off and hearing the sounds of the steamboat 'round the bend," Barnett said.